Our Business Development Manager, Brian Douglas, arrived in Toronto on Sunday for his first ever Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference. Here’s what he did as the conference prepared to kick off.
This year’s Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) is a sell-out for the first time, with 16,000 registered to attend. We’re here to network with other partners, and to find out what innovations are on the horizon at Microsoft.
Mixed reality
Today is the pre-event and registration day. I took in a session for first-time attendees, where we heard from some regulars and first-timers from last year on how to get the best out of the conference. The session also included some speed networking – I met some interesting partners, including one that’s leading the development of mixed reality applications using Microsoft Hololens – amazing tech!
While waiting to get into the Welcome Reception, we were entertained by some breakdancers, accompanied by music created by a guy beatboxing with just his voice and a mic… Gwen Stefani will have a hard act to follow at the Partner celebration on Wednesday night!
Driving innovation
The Welcome Reception was in the main exhibition space called The Commons, where there was a huge amount of tech on display. I took some time out to pick my next car – nothing too flashy (see pic). Seriously, there’s a great story behind this car: it was designed to help a paralysed former racing driver get back on the track. It’s driven by head and mouth control only.
WPC gets underway properly tomorrow – I’m looking forward to the Vision Keynote from Satya Nadella – we’re expecting some very interesting announcements.
We’ll be updating our blog with the best, most relevent and exciting developments at WPC – read some of our latest updates, and make sure you follow us on LinkedIn and on Twitter to stay up-to-date.